Health care critiqued from every angle

Sen. Max Baucus promised that the Senate will do its part to reform health care. But his plan has plenty of naysayers.

By SHAILAGH MURRAY and LORI MONTGOMERY Washington Post

Last update: September 22, 2009 - 8:46 PM

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WASHINGTON - Democrats and Republicans formed clear battle lines Tuesday as the Senate Finance Committee opened a high-stakes debate over health care legislation proposed last week by the panel's chairman.

Both sides found plenty to criticize in Sen. Max Baucus' bill, particularly its requirement that all U.S. citizens must buy health insurance at potentially high costs.

Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, a member of the committee and the Senate's No. 2 Republican, called the bill "a stunning assault on liberty" that would lead to higher taxes and less consumer choice.

But Baucus, D-Mont., defended his work and urged his colleagues to "do our part to make quality, affordable health care available to all Americans."

"Our actions here, this week, will determine whether we are courageous and skillful enough to seize the opportunity to change things for the better," he said in his opening statement.

Republicans outlined a series of specific provisions that they would seek to change or eliminate as the committee debates hundreds of amendments, a discussion that could stretch into next week. One target-rich area: the more than $500 billion in Medicare changes that the bill proposes, to squeeze waste from the elderly insurance program. Another is the fine that the bill would impose on U.S. citizens who don't buy health insurance, which the GOP describes as a tax on the middle class. And they warn that the bill's hefty new industry fees would be passed on to consumers.

Some Democrats, meanwhile, said they would press to further reduce costs for the millions of Americans who would be required to purchase health coverage.

Baucus revised his bill even before submitting it to the committee Tuesday morning, adding more aid for middle-class families and watering down a tax provision that could target a small number of union households.

Vice President Joe Biden defended the bill, and the vast insurance industry changes it seeks to legislate, in a speech Tuesday to a meeting of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners at National Harbor.

Biden said that, without such an ambitious overhaul as Baucus and other congressional Democrats are seeking, the exploding cost of health care will overwhelm the budgets of individuals, government and business. "To state the obvious, this is simply an unsustainable position," Biden said.

Baucus' bill would help extend health insurance to an estimated 94 percent of Americans, including 29 million individuals who currently have none. An estimated 11 million people would join Medicaid under the legislation, and 25 million others would gain access to a new private-insurance exchange, including 7 million people who currently purchase their own plans or pay for expensive coverage through their employers.

Democrats' primary concern with the Baucus bill is that it would not adequately subsidize working-class and middle-class households, who could be required to pay between 2 percent and 12 percent of their income toward premiums. After Baucus' revisions, no individual who gets coverage through the insurance exchange would pay more than $3,987 a year for deductibles and co-payments; families' out-of-pocket costs would be capped at $7,973.

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